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The five people killed were from Massachusetts.
This photo, provided by Virginia State Police, shows the scene of a fatal crash involving a passenger bus on Interstate 95 near Quantico, Virginia, on Friday, May 29, 2026. AP
A bus collided with vehicles slowing to a work zone on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday, killing five people and injuring dozens, including the driver, authorities said.
The accident occurred at approximately 2:35 a.m. on southbound I-95 in Stafford County, near Quantico, Virginia. Police said that all five people who died were in vehicles hit by the bus, and 44 people were taken to hospitals, including three in critical condition.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that traffic was slowing southbound for the upcoming work zone,” State Police said in a news release. “A bus failed to slow down for traffic and collided with six vehicles.”
Police said there were “about” 34 passengers on the bus.
“We have patients in multiple hospitals. We have the driver in a hospital here,” said Peyton Vogel, a Federal Transit Administration spokesman who was at the scene. “I have to say this is one of the most tragic things I’ve ever seen. Absolutely tragic.”
Four of the dead were in one car that caught fire. State Police said the victims were a 45-year-old male, a 44-year-old female, a 13-year-old female, and a 7-year-old male, all from Greenfield, Massachusetts. The fifth victim, a 25-year-old woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, was in an SUV that was struck by the bus.
State police identified the bus driver as Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York, and charges remain pending, authorities said.
Mary Washington Healthcare said it received 19 patients from the incident. It posted online that seven of the patients were transported to its trauma center in Fredericksburg, where four were released and three remained under treatment — one in serious condition and two in critical condition. Twelve people were taken to hospital in Stafford, where they were later released in good condition.
The National Transportation Safety Board posted online Friday that it would send a “live team” to conduct a safety investigation into the crash and that it would have a spokesperson at the scene.
The southbound lanes were reopened by noon Friday, but traffic remained congested for a few miles, according to a state transportation advisory.
Two surviving passengers, bruised and shaken, described what it was like inside the bus in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch outside the hospital where they were examined.
Rhonda Wright and Wayne Tobin said they sensed something was wrong long before the accident, describing the driver as reckless and the bus traveling at extremely high speeds before crashing into slow-moving traffic.
They said the initial collision was just the beginning of their horror, as the bus continued to move, hitting one vehicle after another as passengers screamed, smoke filled the inside of the bus and luggage flew into the air.
“The bus was still going, still hitting cars,” Wright said. “We felt like we were in a death trap because there was no way to stop the bus.”
When the bus finally stopped, people rushed to escape through the windows. Tobin said he emerged covered in the blood of other passengers. One man’s teeth were shattered, Wright said.
“I’m 64 years old, and I thought I was going to die,” Wright said. “I’m glad I’m alive today.”
Tobin was headed to Raleigh to attend his mother’s funeral. Wright was traveling to Greensboro to visit his family. They both lost their phones and identities in the bus wreck.
“My wallet is there, my ID is there, my phone is there,” Wright said. “You can’t do anything without your identity.”
The bus was operated by E&P Travel, Inc., based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s compliance snapshot showed just one injury crash involving the company’s vehicles in the past two years, and listed its compliance rating as “satisfactory.”
The company was founded on Nov. 24, 2023, by Xu Liu, according to records from the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office. Liu is also listed as a registered agent. The company operated four vehicles and had 11 drivers, the FMCSA website said.
While it’s too early to determine the cause of Friday’s accident, federal authorities have been grappling with interstate bus safety issues for decades.
Following a series of passenger bus accidents in 2008 that killed 41 people, the U.S. Department of Transportation published a bus safety action plan.
The NTSB investigated 16 fatal crashes between June 1998 and January 2008, finding that driver-related issues such as fatigue, medical condition and inattention accounted for 56 percent of the crashes. The agency said driver-related problems were responsible for 60 percent of the deaths in those accidents.
Among the recommended measures are the creation of a pre-employment history screening program for drivers, and a national drug and alcohol testing database “to enable bus operators to determine whether drivers have a history of violating DOT alcohol or drug rules.”
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Associated Press contributors include Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H. Breed in Wake Forest, N.C. and Verduzco in Kings Mountain, N.C.
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